Playing Limits

A player in Scoresheet Baseball can only play roughly as much as he did in the majors that week. This is measured by plate appearances for position players, and innings pitched (and games appeared in) for pitchers. We do have adjustments to make up for the fact that some weeks your players can't play as much in Scoresheet Baseball as they do in the majors. In some weeks for example, 3 or more of your pitchers may start twice in the majors, but they can't all start twice in the same week on your team. Therefore we allow your players a few more at-bats or innings pitched some weeks to roughly balance things out over the course of the season. We also carry unused pitcher starts to the next week if necessary.

The playing time limitations explain why a sub may start a game, or why a pitcher may be taken out before his hook number is reached. If a player is injured or benched in the majors, he'll start playing less for you also. This means you need to draft players at each position who you believe will play a lot in the majors in the upcoming season. A major league player who gets virtually no at-bats will not help you much, regardless of his batting average! In general, any starting position player is more valuable than a top pinch hitter who only gets a limited number of at-bats. You should also make sure you draft plenty of pitching - there are a LOT of pitcher injuries every season. We strongly recommend going into the season with at least 6 pitchers who are slated to start in the majors. While many middle relievers have good ERAs, the pitchers who get more innings can often be more helpful to your Scoresheet team.

If you run out of eligible players at a position, we automatically shuffle positions for you. We'll move players between 2B, 3B and SS; we'll move the player on the bench with the top pinch hit rank to 1B; and we'll take the top listed player and move him to OF. (Such shuffling changes do incur the fielding penalties discussed later in the Fielding Numbers section.) This shuffling only occurs when you have no one else on your team who qualifies at that position. If there are substitute OFers on the bench then naturally we'll move the top listed sub OFer to the starting lineup.

If you are subject to a very large number of injuries, we assign you an anonymous replacement. These replacements, appearing as Catcher(AAA), OF(AAA), Pitcher(AAA), etc., will be roughly .200 (or worse) hitters, or pitchers with an ERA 1.8 times the league average (an ERA of about 8!) (AAA) players will bat differently depending on the position at which they appear. (AAA) OFers and first basemen hit about .205, with a .255 slugging percentage, catchers(AAA) hit about .150 with a .200 slugging average, and (AAA) infielders hit about .190, but with only a .220 slugging average. These are the same types of players that are called up from the minors when injuries occur on a major league club. The use of (AAA) players enables your team to continue playing, but certainly decreases your chance of winning games - you should try to get a solid backup with plenty of playing time at as many positions as possible!

Miscellaneous limits: 1) "Short relievers" (as designated by our player lists) cannot pitch more than three innings in a single game; 2) A pitcher listed as a short reliever on our lists can not start a Scoresheet Baseball game, unless/until he starts a game for his major league club in the upcoming season; 3) Any pitcher who didn't start a game in the majors that week can't pitch more than 4 innings in a single game for you (even if he starts for you); 4) For pitchers who pitch in more games in a week for their Scoresheet team than they did in the majors, an appearance in a Scoresheet game counts roughly as an inning pitched against their pitching limit. For those pitchers, each appearance in the majors adds an inning to the amount he can pitch in Scoresheet that week; each Scoresheet appearance costs him an inning.

complete AL draft/rules packet in PDF format

complete NL draft/rules packet in PDF format

AL Draft Packet                    NL Draft Packet    
Introduction - How we draft        Introduction - How we draft
Roster Balancing Procedures        Roster Balancing Procedures
Playing Limits                     Playing Limits
AL Player Lists Explanation        NL Player Lists Explanation
   Fielding numbers                   Fielding numbers
   Catcher numbers                    Catcher numbers
Statistics Used:                   Statistics Used:
  Batting, Pitching,                       Batting, Pitching,
  Base Running, Fielding                   Base Running, Fielding
Additional SS Baseball Rules       Additional SS Baseball Rules
AL Sample Lineup Card              NL Sample Lineup Card
AL Pitching & Defense                NL Pitching & Defense
     Lineup Card Explanations            Lineup Card Explanations
AL Batting & Bench                   NL Batting & Bench         
     Lineup Card Explanations           Lineup Card Explanations    
AL Ranking Sheet                   NL Ranking Sheet
Scoresheet's A.L. Player List      Scoresheet's N.L. Player List

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